Kitchen Remodel - starting somewhere besides the kitchen

I have debated about whether or not to post about the kitchen remodel. But, I decided it would be fun to document it as I go, simply for my sake. If you happen to be on here, and you happen to watch the progress, great. I hope it is fun for you. I just figured that the kitchen remodel is kind of my own new art project - it took some creativity and color matching, etc, right? And, it has occupied much of my time for the past few months, so why not post about it. Unlike most kitchen remodels, ours does not start in the kitchen. Ours starts below it in M's room. We had to move all of her furniture out (except for the bed which wouldn't fit through the door), and, as of this morning, it looked like this:

Tim (he is our contractor) came this morning and started tearing into the ceiling. We need to find out why the kitchen floor is sinking near our pantry, and this is how we look. It is still under investigation, but we have found that at least 2 joists have sunk a little, so we will have to jack them up, reinforce them, and hope it stays. (I say "we" but really, it is Tim doing the work). About 45 minutes into his work, the room looked like this:

Now, double the amount taken from the ceiling, and add another half on top of that, and you will have what it looks like now (I would take a photo, but I don't want to bug him right now) In the mean time, I have packed a lot of my kitchen up - just keeping what I need to continue cooking until I no longer have a stove or oven. Then, when this ceiling/floor job is done, I will pack up the rest, move some furniture, and we will start the fun stuff. For the past 2 weeks I have had wood flooring (41 boxes) sitting in my family room and study. It hasn't been too bad, but I love the flooring so much and just can't wait to get it installed. Right now it looks like this:

But, when it is installed, it will look more like the photos above. (I just LOVE the variation in grain and color!). It is called Acacia Golden Walnut. Acacia is a beautiful wood and it is very solid. I hope that will mean it holds up well in our high-traffic kitchen. (If you look closely on the photo in our family room (the smaller stack of boxes), you can see our sample of cabinet colors - the light will be on the outside cabinets, the dark on the island. I will take more photos as we go - including the gaping hole in our ceiling. M is being a trooper about it all. It can't be fun sleeping on the floor in another room surrounded by all of your stuff in a very small space. She said, "so, is this what it is like living in an apartment?" Ha ha. I think the space she has is about the size of my dorm room in college, so maybe she is on to something. :)